Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite are visited by upwards of five million people a year, fulfilling the National Park Service’s writ to preserve natural resources “for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.” Golden Gate National Recreational Area receives even more guests.
Yet while demand for open spaces is robust enough to prompt the need for waiting lists to get into some parks, the State of California is steadily setting aside lands where almost nobody is welcome to visit. These properties often become the singular domain of wealthy representatives of “nonprofit” land trusts, with “no trespassing” signs paid for by a web of state and federal subsidies.
Nearly 20,000 “easements,” more than half of which have been granted since 2000, have been sanctioned under the California Conservation Easement program. Easements are intended to preserve land in its natural, scenic, agricultural, historical, forested, or open-space condition. Three-quarters of these easements, 1.2 million acres, are held by nonprofit organizations. Although an easement forestalls development, it doesn’t require public access. The land essentially remains private property. As a result, almost 90 percent of easement areas are closed; just six percent actively invite visitors.
While nonprofits can’t directly receive tax incentives, easements can be readily monetized. Under California’s Natural Heritage Preservation Tax Credit Program, a credit against net tax of 55 percent of fair market value can be claimed for properties transferred to nonprofits to protect wildlife habitat, open space, and agricultural uses. More than $50 million in credits have been issued, associated with greater than 8,000 acres. Likewise, under the Williamson Act, aka the California Land Conservation Act of 1965, private landowners have received in excess of $1.2 billion in property tax reductions, with 10 million acres enrolled, in exchange for restricting land use to agricultural or open-space purposes.
Property-owners who donate or sell easements may also qualify for federal income tax deductions based on restrictions on the appraised value of the land’s development rights. These deductions can be substantial, often half the parcel’s value, with the ability to carry forward unused portions for up to 15 years. Easements can also lower property taxes because they reduce the land’s taxable value and alleviate estate taxes by decreasing an asset’s overall worth.
Land trust boards are dominated by upper income European-Americans. For example, The Nature Conservancy – employees of which are two-thirds white, with a board that includes executives from The Carlyle Group, JP Morgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs – uses Spindrift, a nature preserve in Marin County, exclusively as a place for staff vacations.
There are notable exceptions. The Wildlands Conservancy has a mission to conserve biodiversity while actively offering ecological education programs to children, often alongside public access. Yet by and large California taxpayers are subsidizing the acquisition and use of land by the elite, with little to no oversight over resulting social or environmental benefits. The question is: why?